Misc.
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia couple serving probation for the 2009 death of their toddler after they turned to prayer instead of a doctor could face new charges now that another of their children has died. Herbert and Catherine Schaible belong to a fundamentalist Christian church that believes in faith healing. Philadelphia Judge Benjamin Lerner said at a hearing they violated the most important condition of their probation: to seek medical care for their remaining children. The Schaibles have yet to be charged in the death of the 8-month-old boy last week, after he suffered from diarrhea and breathing problems for days.
2nd child of Pa. couple dies after only praying
A stunning achievement ... I have an entire bookshelf of bibles and biblical commentaries, concordances, appendices, and the like, but the SAB is by far the best tool for biblical research I have ever come across. - Dr. Michael Shermer , Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine and Executive Director of the Skeptics Society I've been waiting for this book for my entire life!
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible (book)
Usury
Usury ( pron.: / ˈ juː ʒ ə r i / [ 1 ] [ 2 ] ) is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans . Depending on the local laws or social mores, a loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates . According to some jurisdictions and customs, simply charging any interest at all can be considered usury. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Other terms used for usury or usurers include loan shark , as well as Shylock which is sometimes used with an antisemitic connotation. The term may be used in a moral sense — condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes — or in a legal sense where interest rates may be regulated by law. Historically, some cultures (e.g.24 September 2012 Last updated at 05:14 GMT By Andy Dangerfield BBC News, London Synagogue Church Of All Nations website shows videos of people it claims have been "cured" Dangerous cases of faith leaders who tell people with HIV to stop taking their life-saving drugs have been identified by African-led community groups in a number of locations across England. Seven groups said there were instances of people being told by faith leaders they had been "healed" through prayer - and then pressured to stop taking antiretroviral medication, according to the charity African Health Policy Network (AHPN).
Faith leaders across England in 'HIV healing' claims
Boy Scouts of America membership controversies
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), one of the largest private youth organizations in the United States, has policies which prohibit atheists , agnostics and "open or avowed" homosexual people from membership in its Scouting program as directly violating its fundamental principles and tenets. BSA has denied or revoked membership status or leadership positions for violation of these foundational principles. The BSA contends that these policies are essential in its mission to instill in young people the values of the Scout Oath and Law. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The organization's legal right to have these policies has been upheld repeatedly by both state and federal courts .
Near Death Experiences
A comparison of the effects of hypoxia to the reports of a brush with the afterlife. By Brian Dunning, Skeptoid Podcast Episode 261, June 07, 2011 http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4261 Today we're going to float around the operating room, look down at our own body lying there on the table, hear the heart monitor switch to a solid tone, and learn first-hand what some believe goes on during a near death experience. When a small percentage of people are near death or are temporarily dead, either from an accident or during emergency lifesaving treatment, they report eerie experiences that they interpret as having crossed the threshold into an afterlife.
Religion riskier than porn for online viruses: study
Web wanderers are more likely to get a computer virus by visiting a religious website than by peering at porn, according to a study released on Tuesday. Web wanderers are more likely to get a computer virus by visiting a religious website than by peering at porn, according to a study released on Tuesday. "Drive-by attacks" in which hackers booby-trap legitimate websites with malicious code continue to be a bane, the US-based anti-virus vendor Symantec said in its Internet Security Threat Report. Websites with religious or ideological themes were found to have triple the average number of "threats" that those featuring adult content, according to Symantec.COLUMBUS, Ohio – For students to accept the theory of evolution, an intuitive "gut feeling" may be just as important as understanding the facts, according to a new study. In an analysis of the beliefs of biology teachers, researchers found that a quick intuitive notion of how right an idea feels was a powerful driver of whether or not students accepted evolution—often trumping factors such as knowledge level or religion. "The whole idea behind acceptance of evolution has been the assumption that if people understood it – if they really knew it – they would see the logic and accept it," said David Haury, co-author of the new study and associate professor of education at Ohio State University. "But among all the scientific studies on the matter, the most consistent finding was inconsistency.
When it comes to accepting evolution, gut feelings trump facts
Mississippi Initiative 26, the “personhood” amendment on the November 8th ballot, is not only dangerous for women’s health and lives—it is dangerous for our democracy. While not recognized as such, it is an openly theocratic endeavor. We should be talking about theocracy because this amendment is not just being fielded in Mississippi—it has been introduced in at least six other states, with more to come.
‘Personhood’ Agenda is Theocracy | Sexuality/Gender
October 4, 2007 47-Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey Overview
World Publics Welcome Global Trade — But Not Immigration
Michigan's recent anti-bullying bill debate has moved one step forward and two steps back for actual protection against bullying in the state's schools. The anti-bullying bill , is named "Matt's Safe School Law" for Matt Epling of East Lansing, Michigan who committed suicide after being bullied. Like all anti-bullying efforts, the goal of the bill is to protect those who are vulnerable to attack and create a safer and more humane environment for all children in schools. Unfortunately, the state's Senate Republicans added language to the bill to establish that schools could not prohibit "a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian."
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: Leave Religion Out Of Michigan's Anti-Bullying Bill
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said while the Church had been hostile to Darwin's theory in the past, the idea of evolution could be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, added that 4th century theologian St Augustine had "never heard the term evolution, but knew that big fish eat smaller fish" and forms of life had been transformed "slowly over time". Aquinas made similar observations in the Middle Ages. Ahead of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, the Vatican is also set to play down the idea of Intelligent Design, which argues a "higher power" must be responsible for the complexities of life.
The Vatican claims Darwin's theory of evolution is compatible with Christianity
The Scale of the Universe
Thanks for all the comments! There are a few of these kind of "Your place in the Universe" presentations like this out there, but I am always glad to spread the wonder around :) by Apr 18
Praise the lard? Study links church to obesity - Health - Diet and nutrition
It might be the potlucks, it might be those long hours sitting in pews, but whatever the cause, a new study presented this week shows a link between religious activity and weight gain. The study, conducted by researchers at Northwestern University, found that young adults who frequently attended religious activities were far more likely to become obese than those who didn’t. “Our main finding was that people with a high frequency of religious participation in young adulthood were 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age than those with no religious participation in young adulthood,” says Matthew Feinstein, the study’s lead investigator and a fourth-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “And that is true even after we adjusted for variables like age, race, gender, education, income, and baseline body mass index," he added.Fact-Checking The Church Of Scientology: Journalist Lawrence Wright
L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Dianetics, addresses the first national meeting of Dianetics auditors in 1951. Lawrence Wright's cover story in the current edition of The New Yorker reports on the Church of Scientology and focuses on why screenwriter and director Paul Haggis resigned from the organization in 2009 after spending nearly 35 years with it. Haggis, who directed Crash and wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, spoke with Wright about his reasons for leaving the church and the response from his fellow Scientologists. Wright tells Fresh Air 's Terry Gross about the detailed fact-checking process his article went through — The New Yorker assigned five fact checkers to the story and sent the Church of Scientology 971 fact-checking queries before publication.Are Atheists The Most Discriminated Against Minority? | Rationalists's Blog
I'm sensing sarcasm ;). I'm trying to locate the study these numbers came from. Looks like a 2006 April issue of a sociology magazine. I might see if I can snag a copy for my own research. by Nov 23